Francis Bok, an associate at the American Anti-Slavery Group in Boston, sought to draw attention to contemporary slavery problems during a lecture Monday night. Bok told the audience of his own personal experience in slavery.

Addressing his experience as an escaped Sudanese slave, Bok said action should be taken to help the 27 million slaves worldwide. He called for the United States to increase pressure on the Sudanese government to end its two decades of civil war.

"This is everyone's business," Bok told a packed audience of University of Wisconsin students, faculty and community members. "What good is your freedom if you don't use it to help other people?"

Bok said he was first enslaved at the age of 7 after he was captured during a 1986 Arab militia raid in his native village of Nymlal in Sudan.

"My parents, they were killed along with other families who refused to run," Bok said, describing the raid on Nymlal. "They took them and put them in a big hut and burned them."

Bok was then held captive for 10 years before escaping to the city of Matari, but he was quickly captured by local police and enslaved once again.

Two months later, with the help of an Arab truck driver, Bok escaped to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, but was captured again and imprisoned for seven months.

Upon his release, Bok traveled to Cairo, Egypt, where the United Nations relocated him to North Dakota.

Sharon Hutchinson, a UW professor of anthropology who introduced Bok, said the climate in Sudan that supports slavery stems back to the 1980s.

According to Hutchinson, the conflict between the north and south Sudanese began in 1983 and resulted not only in the slavery of many people, but also the dehumanization of prisoners.

In addressing this inhumane practice, Hutchinson echoed Bok's sentiments and his call to action.

"Our indifference here is something we have to fix," Hutchinson said of the United States. "And in order to break through that indifference, that is why the courage of people like Francis Bok is so important."

University of Wisconsin student Soren Larsen-Ravenfeather said Bok's speech left a strong impression on him.

"After sitting there, listening to that … you can't ignore it," Larsen-Ravenfeather said. "It makes it real, where you know it's happening now. It's … terrifying."

Bok's lecture was part of the Distinguished Lecture Series and was the second this semester. The series is scheduled to continue Feb. 20, when expert pollster Frank Luntz will visit the UW campus.